From the mind to the market

AUTHOR: Lachlan Colquhoun   DATE: 08.12.05   ISSUE 3, 2005

Nevell, a graduate of the AGSM class of 1996, was a recent finalist with his business partner in the 2005 Australia Post NSW/ACT Small Business Award in the “Getting Started” category with the launch of his new product – the Skoona Moova, an environmentally friendly and economic tray which can carry up to four drinks.

“The whole course was instrumental in giving me that added confidence and breadth of thinking to be able to say ‘I can do this.’" David Nevell

It is the second invention Nevell and his partners have commercialized through their business model of Inventors HQ, which not only provides consulting expertise to inventors wanting to commercialise their ideas, but also funds and commercialises new products.

Their first invention, the Ozzy Nozzy, a drip-less nozzle for caulking guns (also a winner of 2004 Australia Post Small Business Award, ‘Getting Started’ Category), is also about to be released on the Australian market.

For Nevell, his new venture with Inventors HQ is the perfect combination of the mechanical engineering skills he acquired at Sydney’s UTS, and the strategic frameworks he learnt later at AGSM.

“I’ve always had a bit of a personal goal to see whether I could create something out of nothing and build a business,” he says.

“But if I hadn’t done the mechanical engineering, and if I hadn’t then got some commercial experience and then done the MBA for that strategic thinking, then I don’t think all the pieces would have come together as they have.”

Nevell was working his way through mechanical design at the UTS when he started working for chemicals company Orica in operations and people management.

From there, he wanted to get into the business environment, and recognized that further study, and most particularly, an MBA was a “logical next step”.

“Although I then progressed to a regional manager position, I realized that the closer you get to senior management, not a lot moves,” he says.

“So my ambition got the better of me and I gave in to my long term dream of doing something for myself.”

The genesis for the Inventors HQ concept came as Nevell advised his father, a dentist, on how to commercialise one of his inventions.

“Dad got the invention to a certain point but then I noticed that he didn’t quite know what to do as the next step, and I thought there must be other people with the same dilemma, who have brilliant ideas but can’t really deal with the commercial world,” says Nevell.

The next catalyst was meeting John Braams, inventor of both the Ozzy Nozzy and the Skoona Moova, who showed him the ideas and soon after, two companies were created to commercialise the ideas following the Inventors HQ business model.

“I use the phrase ‘from the mind to the market’ and that’s just what we do,” says Nevell.

“We take ideas which sit in people’s minds which most likely will never see the light of day, and then take them to the market.”

For some inventions, Nevell simply acts as a consultant at the earlier stages, helping with intellectual property issues, market research and product development.

Others, he might choose to commercialise himself through forming a company around an invention and finding shareholders.

But regardless of the approach with individual inventions, Nevell says his AGSM education has been crucial.

“The most significant thing is the way that you think about various issues,” he says.

“AGSM shows you so many alternatives to how you might ordinarily think, and it opens up your mind to the strategic approach to business, about what is possible.

“The whole course was instrumental in giving me that added confidence and breadth of thinking to be able to say ‘I can do this.’"